One day, two people were walking along a river when they saw a woman floating down the river. They rush to the woman’s aid and pull her out of the river. Before they can ask the woman if she is okay, they see another woman floating down the river.Again, both people rush to the shore and ‌rescue the second woman when they notice even more women floating down the river. Frantically, one continues to grab women out of the water while the other turns to run upstream. The first asks, “Where are you going?! We have to save these women,” and the other replies, “I’m going to see who’s throwing women in the river.”

Primary prevention focuses on what is occurring upstream to stop women from being thrown into the river‌. In the case of men’s violence against women, the gendered drivers of violence, social context and reinforcing factors are the upstream causes behind men throwing women in the river.